Steelers Winners And Losers – Week 16 – Bengals

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Cincinatti Bengals 13-10 on Sunday to drop their record to 7-8 on the season. Below are the players that I thought had winning and losing performances in the game. The coaching staff was way too easy and a given here, so spare me those comments. Feel free to add your other choices in the comments below.

Winners:

Cortez Allen – Two interceptions and a forced fumble is more than enough to land the Steelers second-year cornerback on this list. Sure, he gave up some catches to Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green, but he kept him out of the end zone and registered seven combined tackles and three passes defensed. A coming out game? Let\’s hope so.

Lawrence Timmons – Timmons was all over the place in this game and recorded two of the six sacks and a couple of quarterback hurries to go along with his 10 total tackles. This game remind me of the game against the Philadelphia Eagles earlier in the season.

Troy Polamalu – That looked like the Polamalu we all know and love on Sunday. His timing on his lone sack was vintage him and only him. He also showed burst in the secondary over the top and recorded two pass breakups to go along with 8 total tackles.

Keenan Lewis – That was a gutsy performance by Lewis on Sunday, who played the game on one leg. He tallied 6 total tackles and 2 defensed passes and needs to be commended for his effort. He promised a big season and delivered one.

Losers:

Ben Roethlisberger – Roethlisberger picked a big time to deliver his worst game of the season. He was off target all day with his throws and forced several others. The two interceptions were killers and he looked more like Andy Dalton than Dalton did. a 50% completion rate is not going to get it.

Greg Warren – Warren picked a hell of a time to deliver the worst snap perhaps of his career and it resulted in a missed chipped shot by Shaun Suisham.

David DeCastro – DeCastro gave up at least two sacks and a few pressures as he finally got a chance to meet Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins, who recorded 2.5 sacks, 6 total tackles and a forced fumble. He will learn from this game and be better for it. Keep in mind that this was just his second NFL game.

LaMarr Woodley – Two first half tackles, with one being an assist at that was it. Woodley disappeared for a second game in a row in the second half.

Woodley has been a disappearing act all season. Oh wait, he is the new owner of a bowling team!

JT

Timmons really turned it on after a slow start to the season. Excited to see him paired with Sean Spence next season.

Mike.H

Basic human nature, learn from it:

when a big contract’s signed, there’s no incentive to perform your best any more, shift into 2nd gear and play not to get hurt. ( basic human flaw… difficult to fix… toss in EGO, entitlement…whatever…)

Tim Culligan

Tomlin should be on the loser list. I understand why he went for the FG in Tennesse but he had to learn from that. I agree with the choice to go for it with a minute left since Big Ben and the offense has been great at doing that over the course of the season. But the FG choice was just plain stupid.

Garrett Hunt

For sure, imagine that speed at OLB. But im not sure he’ll play a lot next season …. pretty much his rookie year.

Pete

People were talking about how DeCastro could just walk in and be pro while they thrashed Adams for his struggles is pass pro. Well Atkins owned DeCastro all day long. Everyone has to remember these guys are rookies and they will get better. For rookies, they performed well this season and I’m excited to watch them develop in the coming years. Both DeCastro and Adams will be important players for the Steelers. Hope we can hold onto them and they don’t get fat heads come contract time.

Pete

Something to remember when looking at the play and production of guys like Woodley. Woodley is probably not anywhere near 100%. Little injuries they play with affects their performance. I’d like to see Woodley take better care of himself in the offseason. Butler alluded to the fact that he’d like to see Woodley take better care of his hamstrings with proper conditioning especially during the offseason.

The injuries on the Steelers this season was something out of a sci-fi novel. I’d like to compare the injury rate of the Steelers and see how it compares to teams across the league.

Mike Carroll

Agreed. Timmons really improved as the season went on, and was great on Sunday.

http://www.facebook.com/glenn.novak.37 Glenn Novak

How about all of us fans being on the losers list for the year? I will be a member of Steeler Nation for all of my days, but can’t remember a season when I have felt so frustrated and disappointed about the lack of focus, effort and apparent preparation from many of the players and much of the coaching staff. Both Tomlin and Ben need to spend this offseason figuring out how to better lead this team by example or we will have many more years like this to look forward to.